The road inland from Santa Cruz, where I’m staying, is a winding highway through a mountain range. I’m getting to know both the road, and the habits of the local drivers, well.
I’ve noticed, that unlike many Australian drivers, they don’t get angry at the slow drivers in the fast lane. They don’t flash their lights, blast their horns, or ride their tails. They just quickly and quietly change lanes, go around them and then overtake. They don’t make a fuss, but nor do they let these obstacles hold them back or distract them.
This got me thinking. What if we could just observe the difficult people and situations that cross our path, then sidestep them and move on?
Have you noticed that there are two groups of people in life, just like the two different types of drivers? The first group – the ones that bip, toot, flash, and no doubt swear and gnash their teeth – love drama. Their lives, their thoughts and their conversations constantly turn to the latest (usually scandalous, at least to them) happenings with the people in their life.
They talk about others with strong feeling (usually negatively), they ruminate over every aspect of their behaviour, and they look for support and confirmation from their friends to reassure them that their view about both the person and the situation is right.
These people ride the roller coaster of the continual ups and downs of intense but fruitless emotion. Whether it is anger, resentment, envy, criticism, even jealousy or hatred that consumes them, they are tossed about in the swirling pain and suffering of negative emotions. These people find it difficult to move with the vicissitudes of life. They often feel stuck in their lives, and peace eludes them.
The second group seem unaffected by drama. They bear the blows of other’s negative actions and reactions, they hear the words and observe the behaviour of others, but they don’t become part of it all.
They have an internal system that enables them to be in the world of high drama but not of it. They see it, they even feel the effects of it, but they don’t allow themselves to be drawn down into the dark vortex of endless conflict.
These people rarely seem to lose their equanimity. They deliberately sidestep the people and events that would hold them up, back, or tied in the chains of aggression and attack (either verbal or physical).
They take what life deals them and like the alchemist, turn the dross of life into the gold of acceptance, compassion and peace. Peace is their natural habitat, in life and on the road.
Drama, who needs it?
